Cycling....Running...Duathlons....maybe some triathlons in the future..

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Wee bit o' history on me...

I've had an obsession with cycling my whole life. I can remember racing the kids in the neighborhood when I was very young. Then there was a time I tried to ride my bike for an entire day without stopping. I actually rode in circles in my driveway and even had my babysitter set up a feedzone and handed off PB&J's! I transitioned from BMX bikes to MB and finally road bikes. When I was about 12 I began entering myself in local time-trials in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, near Peninsula, Ohio. I did really well, but I had no direction or coach or even any good equipment. My first TT I actually wore a t-shirt and spandex shorts (not cycling - just spandex). I had tennis-shoes with toe-clips. I didn't even take the frickin' kickstand of my bike!! Notwithstanding the fact I didn't know what the heck I was doing, I was one helluva cyclist. I was beating a lot of the much older kids that had kick-ass gear. I was approached by a team that wanted me to travel with them for road races, but the catch was that I had to pay my own way. Since, I couldn't deliver enough Record-Courier's to pay up, and it was too much for the family to afford, that idea was canned. Damn...maybe it was my shot! I'll never know...slightly bitter....no really bitter!Anyway, I began riding as much as possible. I rode from my home in Streetsboro to the Cuyahoga Valley in Peninsula to train on the hills, then back. My friends were not cyclists, and yes, they thought I was nuts! Most still do. To sum up my cycling resume... Thousands of training/recreation miles, I did a Tour de Cure in Akron (75) once, Pedal To The Point (150 miles) 3 times. Palmetto Peleton Project (Greenville, SC).Races At The Lake 3 times, Frosty Toes Road Race (fka Hartford-Roubaix). Brecksville Road Race once. I started the now defunct website bicyclingbuzz.com. Don't click there, I don't know what it is now! I just didn't have the time to keep up with it. I was once a member of the Summit Freewheelers a great cycling club around Akron, Ohio, I just don't like to drive somewhere to ride my bike. So I detached from them, and have been detached since. I'm a crazy fan of pro cycling, I love the stage races...Tour of California, Tour de Georgia, Vuelta, Giro, TDF (except I'm pissed about the whole exclusion stuff), Paris-Nice, Tour de Suisse, Tour of Missouri. And the classics/one days, USPRO Cycling Championships, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Gent-Wevelgem, etc...